Replacement t or fitting



Patented June 9, 1953 REPLACEMENT T on FITTING Frank H. Mueller and Walter J. Bowan, Decatur, Ill., assignors to Mueller 00., Decatur, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application January 14, 1949,'Serial No. 70,886

2 Claims.

This invention relates to pipe fittings, particularly to Ts adapted for use with replacement service tubes enclosed by and extending from existing, discontinued building service pipes.

In older fiuid distribution systems, the service pipes fromthe underground mains to consumer buildings are commonly made of steel or other ferrous material. Soil conditions inevitably cause progressive deterioration of the servive pipes by corrosion, resulting in leakage, and eventually necessitating replacement of the service pipes. A simple and economical replacement method has been widely practiced, employing a hard, thin-walled copper tube positioned within the discontinued service pipe, connected at one end to the service main and inside the building to the existing piping. To prevent leakage of soil water, gas, air and the like into the interior of the building, the annular space between the discontinued service pipe and the replacement service tube is commonly sealed off by packing with asphalt impregnated material and wrapping with similarly impregnated cloth. This replacement method has numerous obvious advantages, requiring excavation at the service main only, and utilizing the discontinued service pipe to guide the replacement copper tube during installation, and to protect the replacement tube thereafter from mechanical injury and from corrosion.

The walls of replacement service tubes ordinarily being too thin to permit threading, it is necessary to provide at the building end a fitting which may be otherwise afiixed thereto in a fluid-tight manner. such replacement fitting should make a fiuidtight seal with the discontinued service pipe also, to obviate the packing and wrapping formerly employed. 7

It is an object, therefore, of the present invention to provide a replacement T readily attached to a discontinued service pipe, adapted for sealing engagement with a smooth-walled replacement service tube enclosed by and extending from the service pipe.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a replacement T of simplified, unitary construction, expeditiously installed with a minimum of equipment.

A further object is to provide a replacement T readily connected to existing building piping with minimum disturbance thereof.

A still further object is to provide a replacement T into which seal-adjusting tools and service llne stoppers may be inserted without the interruption of service in the main and without It is further desirable that I Figure 2 is a section taken on the line 2-2 disconnecting the T. Other objects will be in part obvious, and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention and the novel feature thereof may best be made clear from the following description and the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section through a preferred embodiment of the replacement T of the present invention, installed in operative relationship with a discontinued service pipe and a replacement service tube;

Figure 1; Y

Figure 3 is a longitudinal section through a further embodiment of the replacement T, adapted for forming a soldered joint with the replacement tube, and

Figure 4 is a section taken onthe line 4-4 of Figure 3. V

Referring to the drawings, in Figure 1 is seen the basement or building wall [0, and the iron or steel service pipe ll extending therethrough to the inside of the wall. The other end of the service pipe ll extends, it will be understood, to a service main (not shown) under an ad-v jacent street, or elsewhere located outside the wall Ill. Threadably engaged to the end of pipe ll inside .wall I0 is a preferred embodiment of the replacement T of this invention, comprising a body l2, which includes the opposed extensions l3 and I4 and the lateral extension. IS. The inner walls of extensions I3 and I 4 define the longitudinal bore [-6, and the inner wall of lateral extension 15 defines the lateral bore 11, communicating with the central chamber. l8, constituting an enlarged portion of longitudi nal bore IS. The end of longitudinal bore l6 within the extension I 3 comprises the'screw thread I 9, in engagement with the externally threaded end of service pipe II, whereby the replacement T is positioned and supported. The screw thread I9 is preferably a tapered iron pipe thread, whereby a fiuid pressure-tight joint may be made with the service pipe ll merely by threading the replacement T thereonto.

Extending inwardly from the wall of bore l6 adjacent screw thread I9 is the annular internal flange 20, comprising the outside wall 2| and the inside wall 22, which may be perpendicular to the wall of bore l6, but is preferably inclined with respect thereto, as shown. The internal diameter of flange 20 is slightly larger than the outside diameter of the smooth-walled copper replacement tube 23 enclosed thereby, permitting easy passage of the tube 23 therethrough during insertion into the pipe II. The packing ring 24 is provided inside bore t6, abutting inside wall 22 of the flange 20, the abutting end of said packing ring being shaped to conform generally to the surface of inside wall 22, and the gland nut 25 is provided in abutting relationship with packing ring 24. Gland .nut 25 is threadably engaged to the wall of bore by means of the screw thread 26, whereby the gland nut may be rotated to compress packing ring 24 against the inside wall 22 of flange 2D, to make a fluid-tight joint or seal between replacement tube 23 and the body l2 of the replacement T. Gland nut 25 is provided, at the inside end thereof, with suitable tool-engaging means, such as the slots 21. Gland nut 25 and packing ring 24, in relaxed, uncompressed condition, are of substantially the same inside diameter as flange 20, permitting, when loosely engaged, easy passage ofthe replacement tube 23 therethrough.

The lateral extension I5 of body I2 is provided with means, such as the screw thread 28 in lateral bore 11, for connection to the building piping, illustratively the iron or steel riser pipe 29. Obviously, suitable means may be provided for connection tov a copper tube riser, with either aflanged or soldered joint.

In extension Id of body H), the screw thread 30 is provided in bore IE, adapted to receive the externally threaded plug 3!, which comprises suitable tool-engaging means such as the internally threaded socket 32. The screw thread 3.3 .is provided externally of extension It, for

reasons presently apparent.

The replacement T is installed in the following manner. The original elbow or other service fitting .is unscrewed from service pipe H and the riser pipe 29, and discarded. The replacement T of this invention, with the packing ring 24 and gland nut 25 in place therein but only loosely retained, is then screwed onto the pipe II by means of screw thread l9, making a fluid-tight joint therewith if the thread .19 is a tapered iron pipe thread, as is preferred. The replacement T is thereby supported, and the parts thereof adapted to make a fluid-tight joint with the replacement tube properly aligned and positioned. With .plug 3.! removed from the T, the thinwalled copper replacement tube 23 may be inserted through the T into service pipe .H, and pushed therethrough to the service main outside the building. 7

The replacement tube is then withdrawn slightly, and with proper measurement severed so that on being pushed back the end of the tube extends from the discontinued service pipe H substantially to the central chamber [-8, as shown. When the replacement tube has. been thus re-inserted into operative position, the slots 21 of gland nut 25 may be engaged by a suitable tool, not shown, inserted into bore l6 through the. extension I 4, and the gland nut rotated and tightened to compress packing ring 24 against inside wall 22 of the flange 2i), expanding the packing ring to effect a fluid-tight joint between the replacement service tube and the T body. The fluid-tight joint with the replacement tube, it will be readily seen, is thereby made entirely independently of the discontinued service pipe H, and is formed entirely by smooth, new parts undamaged by corrosion or otherwise. The gland nut engaging tool may then be withdrawn, and plug 3| threaded into screw thread 30, and with the connection of riser pipe 29 to screw thread 30, the replacement job inside the building is complete. A small excavation may then be made at the main, the discontinued service pipe H disconnected therefrom and the replacement service tube connected thereto, and service resumed.

Without the interruption of service, by means of screw thread 33, suitable means may be attached to the extension M of the T, the plug 31 removed, and the joint formed by packing ring 24 and gland nut 25 tightened, or, when necessary, replaced. This may be done by the attachment of a control valve and drilling machine, in the manner well known in the art. Such a device and method are disclosed in U. S. Patent 1,996,345, issued April 2, 1935, to Frank H. Mueller. Further, as will be understood, by means of such devices a stopper may be inserted into and expanded in the replacement tube 23, thereby permitting disassembly of the piping within the building without interrupting service in the main. When the fluid in the system is gas, and the pressure very low, the above-mentioned operations may be performed without serious danger by merely removing plug 3!, and allowing the gas to flow while the operation is being performed. 7 V

r A modification of the replacement T is shown in Figure '3, wherein the T is adapted to makea soldered joint with the replacement tube, in place of the pressure joint of the modification previously described. In this embodiment; the internal flange 26 is desirably widened, to, present a considerable surface area to the enclosed replacement tube 23, and the Wall of body [2 outside the internal flange is provided with the passage 34 therethrough, whereby soldermay be' introduced between the internal flange and replacement tube. The inner wall of the flange may be suitably grooved, if desired, to facilitate the distribution of the. solder thereabout. facilitate heating of the T body for the" soldering operation, the body 12 outside the flange is desirably shaped into the section 35 of reduced in Figure 3v is accomplished in the same manner asthat of the T previously described, with the exception, of course, that. the joint with the re- 7 placement tube is made'by soldering, rather than by tightening a gland nut against a packing ring. The screw thread 33 on extension "Hi may be employed, as before, to insert a stopper into the replacement tube, making possible disassembly of the building piping without interrupting service in the main.

The modified T, in common with the embodiment first described, combines in a single fitting a complete replacement of an old service installation, involving, but a single fluid-tight joint, that between the replacement T and the replacement tube. The replacement. T is merely threaded onto the discontinued service pipe to rigidly support the T, although this connection may also be made fluid-tight, if desired, by the employ ment of a tapered thread, as previously described. Once installed, it will be seen, the replacement T of this invention may not be disconnected from the replacement tube without dismantling the entire riser line, an important with many practical advantages, are successfully achieved. As various possible embodiments 1. A replacement T for connection to a smooth from said longitudinal bore adjacent said screw thread for enclosing the tube; a packing ring in said longitudinal bore abutting the inside surface of said flange; a gland nut in said longitudinal bore abutting the inside surface of saidpacking ring; an internal plug-engaging screw thread in said body at the other end of said longitudinal bore; and an external screw thread in said body at the plug-engaging end thereof substantially concentric with said internal screw thread and adapted for engaging fluid-tight tool-inserting mechanism.

2. The structure defined in claim 1 in which the inside end of the gland nut is provided with tool-engaging means.

FRANK H. MUELLER. WALTER J. BOWAN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 616,578 Love Dec. 27, 1898 1,200,851 Kennedy Oct. 10, 1916 1,289,575 Tisne Dec. 31, 1918 1,918,442 Baash et a1. July 18, 1933 1,978,547 McWane Oct. 30, 1934 2,017,717 Heeter Oct. 15, 1935 2,179,045 Lewis Nov. 7, 1939 2,268,263 Newell et al Dec. 30, 1941 2,482,687 Mueller et al Sept. '20, 1949 2,493,248 Hughes Jan. 3, 1950 2,546,348 Schuman Mar. 27, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 276,215 Great Britain Aug. 25, 1927 571,935 Great Britain Sept. 14, 1945 

